| Date | 23 May 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Interception |
| Location |
Šalčininkai District, Lithuania
54.36, 25.33 (approximate) |
Lithuanian border guards at Purvėnai in the Šalčininkai district brought down a homemade drone crossing from Belarus, after an alert from the Lithuanian Air Force. The machine, believed to belong to smugglers, was neutralised as it approached the border post at Eišiškės and fell near the village of Dumblė. The State Border Guard Service reported that 18 drones carrying smuggled goods from Belarus had been downed since the start of 2026, against 59 cross-border drones intercepted in the whole of 2025.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 19 May 2026 | Interception | Romanian F-16 shoots down Ukrainian drone over Estonia |
| 20 May 2026 | Incursion | Lithuania issues first-ever red air warning as drone crosses border |
| 21 May 2026 | Incursion | Drone alerts in Lithuania and Latvia scramble NATO aircraft |
| 23 May 2026 | Strike | Drone explodes on impact in Latvian lake |
GlobalMilitary.net's 2026 inventory snapshot shows nine NATO members — Iceland, Luxembourg, the three Baltic states, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Slovenia — hold no fixed-wing fighters, attack aircraft or bombers and depend on Allied air policing.
GlobalMilitary.net's incident log counts 45 established violations of European airspace between January 1 and August 16, 2026, against 31 for the whole of 2025 - and almost all of the growth sits in incidents that ended with a shootdown or an explosion on the ground.
An Italian Eurofighter on NATO Baltic Air Policing duty destroyed an unidentified drone over eastern Latvia before dawn on 14 August, the second time the alliance's quick-reaction force has shot one down over the country this year.